(It should ruin no one's admiration or appreciation of this bravura filmmaking to learn that these sequences were filmed in a surreally sere desert in the south of Jordan.)Īs NASA and the world become aware that Watney is making his stand on Mars even as his mission mates hurtle back toward Earth, The Martian broadens away from the kind of solitary struggle depicted by Hanks in Castaway and Robert Redford in All Is Lost. Doing so requires a whole string of work-arounds and some arduous travel around a masterfully depicted martian landscape. Both qualities serve Damon admirably here, as Watney is called both to draw upon his dogged psychic resources to stay alive in situ and to calculate which arduous risks he must take to escape his dire predicament. Perfectly cast as Watney is Matt Damon, who exudes a sharp and knowing but unflashy authenticity similar to that of Tom Hanks, but who also authoritatively embodies the man of action à la Jason Bourne. As he picks himself up off the Martian ground and takes stock of what's been left behind at the mission base on which he might maintain himself in that condition, he quickly realizes he faces daunting odds at an outpost whose travel time from Earth is measured not in days but in months. But astronaut Mark Watney is of course alive and kicking. The group's commander (Jessica Chastain, looking magnificently haunted) opts to save her crew (played by Michael Peña, Kate Mara, and Sebastian Stan) and blast off instead of trying to retrieve their presumably dead compatriot amid the hellish hail of gravel that threatens to topple their escape vehicle on the launchpad. When the explorers are engulfed in a dust storm and must evacuate from Mars, one astronaut becomes separated from the rest as they make their way to the launch module. A marvelously constructed, flawlessly paced drama about a NASA mission to Mars that goes disastrously awry, the film's animating spirit is a mix of can-do-ism and stick-to-itiveness that carries familiar echoes from sunnier times in our national narrative-albeit leavened with a fashionable frisson of mutinous, antibureaucratic irreverence. Eventually, you’ll understand why.Okay, maybe you've heard this one before, but here goes: The Martian is just the movie America needs right now. Instead of popcorn, maybe buy french fries from the theater concession stand. There’s a little bit of (very funny) profanity. I don’t want you, dear reader, to think that means I’m negatively critical of the film. I don’t want to force weightier issues on The Martian.
We try to look beyond the “flash” of any particular movie and interact with the deeper questions underneath. Movies like The Martian are the most difficult movies for me to review for Reel Spirituality. If these people were all part of our current space program, I have no doubt NASA would have all the funding it needs. If Jeff Daniels, Kristen Wiig, Sean Bean, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Mackenzie Davis, Donald Glover, and Benedict Wong can’t get Mark Watney and the other astronauts home, no one can. Jessica Chastain, Sebastian Stan, Aksel Hennie, Rooney Mara, and Michael Pena make up the most likable and photogenic astronaut crew cinema has ever seen. The Martian also includes a great cast who are all obviously having a great time playing their simple, straight-forward characters. This is my second-favorite Ridley Scott movie next to Alien, which is also a simple story with stellar visuals that’s just lots ton of fun. The Martian has a great plot that’s simple enough to allow Scott to focus on the details without distracting from the story. Ridley Scott has long been a director who excels at creating and framing detail-rich worlds, often at the expense of story. The Martian is also shot like it’s the most important movie in the world though, and that’s one of its greatest aspects. The Avengers franchise has more moral underpinnings and sociological implications. It’s even scored with disco music, the lightest music pop has ever produced. The cartoon-like feel isn’t entirely inappropriate though. It makes the characters look like cartoons most of the time. He’s Matt Damon. Funny and thrilling with enough hastily sketched characters and side plots to keep things interesting, The Martian is the kind of movie people are looking for who say they watch movies “to be entertained.” Avoid the 3D though. He has to survive until everyone else can figure out a way to rescue him and bring him home. Mark Watney (Matt Damon) gets left behind on Mars after an accident. The Martian is a good time at the movies.
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